I was actually going to pass on Ragnarok, but if Prim says it's epic, it must be seen.Those Dead Man's Hand pics and game reports got me in a Western mood. Watched "True Grit" (1969) for the first time in a million years, and followed it up with the Coen Bros. version. Every time I enter a room it takes all I've got not to shout out, "Fill your hands, you sons of bxxches!" Should watch "High Noon" next. Maybe follow it up with "Outland"?

...and now his Head was full of nothing but Inchantments, Quarrels, Battles, Challenges, Wounds, Complaints, Amours, and abundance of Stuff and Impossibilities.....Cervantes, Don Quixote

I went to see Thor 3 last weekend. I eventually figured out a cunning plan and just brought both the kids up to Yokkaichi and watched it there on Saturday afternoon. They enjoyed it, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it myself, too. Big, bright and glorious. Doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should the viewer. Fun.

I liked it. Maybe not as much as The Force Awakens or Rogue One but I've seen it twice already and am thinking of seeing it again at an imax or something. I did fall asleep during the quiet tranquil scenes the second time though. Lol. It reminded me of Empire Strikes Back and kind of a best of Star Wars. Something for everyone in this film.

Forget about yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow because all that matters is today.

Just got back from the cinema after another Exeter Movie nights. It was an auspicious evening. Let me try to put into words my thoughts and feelings on Blade of the Immortal. A film already sitting in my top five films of all time. In fact it is dangerously close to it sitting at the top right now above Back to the Future, Withnail and I and 2001 Space Odyssey. Hell it might even be better than Bladerunner! Blade of the Immortal is why we moved to Japan. Plane and simple. It's why us gaikokujin, fans of anime and Japanese culture and the millions of Japanese in the world love Japan. This film enraptures Japan as an essence, a state of mind and an environment. Shot largely on what looks like location near Kyoto or somewhere in Ise the cinematograhy depicts Japan in it's natural overgrown bamboo forest state. The use of water in the mise en scene enraptures us in a world of perfection and wabi sabi 侘寂 or zen like moments as we say in the west. From the summer cicada and crow caws within the folio to the obake undead warrior getting stabbed with a hundred different blades and still fighting on despite the carnage. It's probably the most violent film I've ever seen and the best Samurai movie to date. Yes it's as good as Kill Bill part one and Seven Samurai combined. I lost track at how many slashes, cuts, gratuitous decapitations and nyahhhh chops occurred but every single one of them was expertly choreographed and every single one of them counted and held meaning. The script is beautifully subtle and runs like some kind of epic poem absolutely succinct with Japanese psyche and holds a wicked sense of humour that had me laughing out loud all the way through especially at some of the darker moments. As well as being outrageously funny and dark it's beautifully endearing to the soul and to what it means to fight for our lives. Why do we insist on clinging to life when life is so painful? Why do we keep going? For honour, for revenge, for love or something more primal? The film also addresses what it means to be male and female within Japanese society excellently and the roles we must play. The true meaning of what it means to be a Samurai is explored intricately. A warrior standing on the fringes of society. Not fighting for government, not part of a gang of criminals or even expert fighting school of militia. A loan and noble warrior who fights for the right, without question or pause. Never for money. For soul. It's a beautiful film guys and Kimtaku Sama is the best thing I have seen in Japanese cinema since Mifune Sama. I know him as the kakoii gentlemen from Smap, billboards and advertising but after seeing this you will never see him as anything other than the spirit of the Samurai. Tom Cruise you were not even close.Hana Sugisani San who plays Rin is also exceptional with her acting and plays the adorable younger sister to Kimtaku's Manji. She is the catalyst for the story and the pivotal role of the piece allowing moral choices to come alive within the journey, adding weight and delicate poignancy to every action that occurs within the drama.

Takashi Miike Sama, omedetougozaimashta. Subarashi deshta.

GO SEE IT!

5 + star rating nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

SynopsisManji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu. The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine - the 100th film by master director Takashi Miike.

Forget about yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow because all that matters is today.

The other day I watched Bright, which is one of them Netflix exclusives. For those of you who havent been bombarded with ads for it over the past few weeks (ie those without netflix), the basic premise is it's a cop buddy movie with Will Smith in it (so far so normal) which happens to be set in an alternate LA where orcs, elves, faeries and whatnot are just part of the background way of life. It's pretty good, actually. I mean, at it's heart it is just a buddy movie (Will Smith's human cop is pissed off because he's been lumbered with the department's token orc as a partner, said orc wins Smith's trust, and plot is unfolded.) There's also evil master-race elves, latino gangstas, gunfights and car chases. The allegory is all a bit heavy handed, but I reckon as long as you approach it as something to watch while painting, it's pretty enjoyable. The world-building is quite well done, and there's plenty of little details to be seen if you're looking for them (I particularly liked the riot-police centaurs). For what it's worth, I believe a sequel has already been green lit, and Smith and the orc chap have both signed up for it. Worth a watch, if you fancy a bit of palatable action movie.

I think the centaurs are traffic cops. There's also a graphic floating around showing the other races (the nine mentioned who defeated the dark lord). I saw it on the thread in Dakka's Geek Media forum, not sure where it was posted originally, but IIRC it was from an official source.

Also on Netflix is BBC America's Dirck Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, starring Elijah Wood. It makes very little sense until episode 10 out of a 12-episode season, but that's rather the point. Good fun.

me_in_japan wrote:The other day I watched Bright, which is one of them Netflix exclusives. For those of you who havent been bombarded with ads for it over the past few weeks (ie those without netflix), the basic premise is it's a cop buddy movie with Will Smith in it (so far so normal) which happens to be set in an alternate LA where orcs, elves, faeries and whatnot are just part of the background way of life. It's pretty good, actually. I mean, at it's heart it is just a buddy movie (Will Smith's human cop is pissed off because he's been lumbered with the department's token orc as a partner, said orc wins Smith's trust, and plot is unfolded.) There's also evil master-race elves, latino gangstas, gunfights and car chases. The allegory is all a bit heavy handed, but I reckon as long as you approach it as something to watch while painting, it's pretty enjoyable. The world-building is quite well done, and there's plenty of little details to be seen if you're looking for them (I particularly liked the riot-police centaurs). For what it's worth, I believe a sequel has already been green lit, and Smith and the orc chap have both signed up for it. Worth a watch, if you fancy a bit of palatable action movie.

I watched it recently too, and thought it wasn't too bad -- better than the bad reviews would have you believe, although i doubt the reviewers ever played Shadowrun...!

Watched a bit of stuff recently. I'll comment on the tv stuff here, but movie-wise I watched The Cloverfield Paradox, on Netflix. It's...um...well, it's the first film I've ever watched where I kinda wish I'd actually heeded the advice of all those who said it was rubbish. Because it sadly is. It vexes me, actually, because it shouldn't have been. It has a good cast, full of people you've seen in other things, and the basic premise is pretty interesting (short version: earth is having an energy shortage, civilisation is almost but not quite breaking down, and it's up to our plucky team of scientists to bang particles together in space to solve the world's crisis. Turns out to be a bad idea because: quantum stuff.)

Unfortunately despite its interesting premise and promise of Cloverfieldy goodness, it totally failed to deliver. Bad, baaaaaaad scriptwriting (there's an energy crisis. The world has no energy. Um yes. What kind of energy? Has anyone tried, y'know, solar? No? Just vague hand-wavy "oh noes! Energy crisis! plot device!" nonsense. A few lines about how things have been tried and failed would've cleared this right up.) Other more serious issues include pointless characters (the girl who gets rescued from the rubble, f'r example. What is the point of her?) and questions that, again, could've been resolved with a line or two of dialogue (how exactly did she end up in the wall? What were the worms there for in the first place?) result in a movie that leaves a sense of potential completely wasted. Also, the actors are good, but the characters are dull. Except Chris O'Dowd and his arm. He was pretty good. Finally, SF films that have gaping science problems bug me. When your spinning gravity generator thingy is on the fritz, surely the gravity on it would be...fritzy, no? And don't introduce weird stuff and then fail to address its weirdness. It's fine in, say, Event Horizon, to have weird supernatural stuff going on because it's made clear that the ship has, literally, been to hell. In The Cloverfield Paradox exactly zero reason (other than more hand-wavey "chaos!") is given for the clearly malevolent (and sentient) forces at work (the arm! The worms! The magnagel!). More focus (any focus!) on the why/how of this would have gone far towards making this movie fun. But they didnt. And it wasn't.

Oh, and no Clovey, neither.

Overall, not worth your time, but maybe ok as background if you're painting or something.

Incidentally, if you want to watch a better version of this movie, try Life, with Ryan Reynolds in it. It's a much, much better stab at trapped-in-a-space-station-getting-picked-off-one-by-one.